Tools and resources

Environmental considerations for copiers, printers, and multifunctional devices

• Sustainable procurement
• Guide

Here are suggested environmental considerations for the RFI/RFP process for this contract category. This category covers copiers, digital duplicators, facsimile machines, mailing machines, multifunctional devices, printers, and scanners. Recent updates to this category include questions based on a new EPEAT standard (Electronic Products Environmental Assessment Tool) on “Imaging Equipment,” which…

Learn More

Connecting climate and human health poster template: Ohio example

• Poster
• Climate and Health

Practice Greenhealth provides a template that can be edited to make a poster on climate and human health. Use the increasing levels of ozone smog and local data on asthma and respiratory disease to illustrate how climate and human health intersect. This is an example of the poster with Ohio statistics.  

Learn More

Complete set of Greening the OR guidance documents

• Greening the Operating Room

Greening the OR is a sector-wide initiative that will provide administrators and OR managers with the tools necessary to reduce environmental impact while driving down costs. This complete set of guidance documents includes: The business case Checklist Implementation modules Case studies

Learn More

Commonwealth of Pennsylvania contract for integrated pest management services

• Chemicals
• Exemplary Document
• Integrated pest management

This is a sample integrated pest management contract for the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania. 

Learn More

Clinician Engagement & Education: Virginia Mason Device Reprocessing

• Exemplary Document
• Virginia Mason

Single-use medical devices are expensive resources that end up in the landfill after use. By using reprocessed medical devices, Virginia Mason has provided the highest quality of care, while reducing waste to the landfill and reducing supply costs by over $3M in three years. In 2014, Virginia Mason reprocessed or recycled over 18,850 pounds of devices, which may have otherwise have been discarded…

Learn More

Clinician Engagement & Education: NorthShore HealthSystem 2016

• Waste
• Medical Waste
• Recycling
• Exemplary Document
• NorthShore University Health System
• Presentation
• Greening the Operating Room

Northshore University Health System has implemented waste management and recycling programs in the operating room. Employee education, staff engagement, and other initiatives have resulted in an increase in recycling rates and reductions in medical and solid waste. Open the presentation to see how Northshore was able to make sustainability improvements.

Learn More

Clinician Engagement & Education: Mayo Rochestor 2016

• Greening the Operating Room
• Exemplary Document
• Mayo Clinic
• White Paper

Hospital sustainability programs reduce costs and enhance the quality of patient care. However, given the long list of priorities that hospitals must tackle, sustainability too often falls by the wayside. Today, the benefits of sustainability are too important to ignore. The operating room is often the largest generator of revenue, as well as the largest consumer of supply costs and the biggest…

Learn More

Cleveland Clinic: Individual behaviors help reduce energy

• Engaged Leadership
• Employees
• Employees Case Study
• Case Study
• Cleveland Clinic
• Employee engagement
• Toolkit

(Employee engagement toolkit) The rate at which Cleveland Clinic uses energy has financial costs, as well as human and environmental health impacts. Reducing the rate of energy used creates a cleaner environment, improves health, and delivers substantial cost savings over the short and long term. In pursuit of care affordability, over $12M of energy waste was identified across the health system.…

Learn More

Advocate Health Care design standard bulletin: Healthy interiors

• Chemicals
• Exemplary Document
• Advocate Health Care
• Healthy interiors

This exemplary document from Advocate Health Care demonstrates how this system achieved the Healthy Interiors goal:  “Effective immediately, purchases of freestanding furniture and medical furnishings for any Advocate capital or renovation project are to be specified without the intentional use of the following chemicals: halogenated fire retardants formaldehyde, perfluorinated compounds, and…

Learn More

Applicable contracts for LEED certification in health care

• Green Building
• Buildings
• Guide

This is a list of contract categories in the health care supply chain that may be relevant to facilities pursuing LEED for Healthcare certification.

Learn More